On November 22-23, Uzbekistan hosted the Asian Forum on Human Rights in the city of Samarkand.
It was a sign of how Uzbekistan is trying to change its image since President Shavkat Mirziyoev came to power at the end of 2016. Prior to that, Uzbekistan was considered a rights abuser, not a host nation for a rights conference.
RFE/RL's media relations manager, Muhammad Tahir, moderated a discussion on the conference -- and what it did and did not do to help change Uzbekistan’s dismal international image.
Two people who attended the forum were on the podcast this week: Brigitte Dufour, the president of the Brussels-based International Partnership for Human Rights, and longtime Majlis friend Steve Swerdlow, the researcher for Central Asia at Human Rights Watch.
Alisher Ilkhamov from the London-based School of Oriental and African Studies also took part in the discussion.
As usual, I had a few things to say also.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
Majlis Podcast: Uzbekistan Holds A Human Rights Conference
Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes.